Anne Gwynne was born in Waco, Texas, the daughter of Pearl (née Guinn) and Jefferson Benjamin Trice, an apparel manufacturer. After her family moved to St. Louis, Missouri, she attended Stephens College, where she studied drama. While accompanying her father to a convention in Los Angeles, Gwynne obtained a job modeling for Catalina Swimwear. She soon began acting in small theaters and appeared in a newsreel and a charity short. In June 1939, she signed a contract with Universal and was immediately put to work in Unexpected Father. Universal cast her in a variety of genres including film noir and musical comedy. She made a number of Westerns at the studio, including two she numbered among her favorite projects, Men of Texas with Robert Stack and Broderick Crawford and Ride ‘Em Cowboy with Abbott and Costello (both 1942). She is remembered by fans of horror for her work in several pictures made in the 1940s. Her first horror film was Black Friday (1940) in which she played Boris Karloff’s daughter. House of Frankenstein (1944) was the last horror picture she did at Universal.

Anne Gwynne was a television pioneer, appearing in TV’s first filmed series, Public Prosecutor (1947–48); she was a member of the regular cast, playing Pat Kelly, the District Attorney’s secretary. Anne Gwynne married Max M. Gilford in 1945. The couple had two children, Gregory and Gwynne, an actress. Gwynne Gilford’s children are actress Katherine Pine and actor Chris Pine. Gwynne died March 31, 2003 of a stroke following surgery at the Motion Picture Country Hospital in Woodland Hills, California.